Jan Aushadhi store faces medicine crunch
Manav Mander
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, March 30
Patients are helplessly waiting outside the Jan Aushadhi Kendra at the Civil Hospital under the scorching sun to get medicines, but there is nobody on other side of the window to help them. On a closer view of the kendra we saw only few boxes of medicines on shelves while rest of the store was empty.
Even after an hour nobody came to give medicines as patients kept waiting. Finally, when an attendant turned up he was of no help as most medicines patients wanted were out of stock.
Gursewak Singh, who had come from Dhandra village, said he had been waiting at the kendra for nearly half an hour, but nobody was present here to attend to patients.
“I am here to buy medicines for my mother. I requested the doctor to prescribe generic medicines only so that I can get these at an affordable price. What is use of the prescription as there is no attendant at the kendra,” he said.
Patients had to return empty handed after waiting for hours altogether at the Jan Aushadhi Kendra.
“My gynaecologist has prescribed medicines and told me that these are available at the Jan Aushadhi Kendra, but on reaching here I found the store without any manager. After waiting for a good time I got only one out of the five medicines prescribed by the doctor. Ultimately, I had to buy medicines from a chemist outside the hospital,” said Asha Kumari, a patient.
Another visitor Ram Parkash said he needed calamine lotion, which was prescribed by a dermatologist for his five-year-old, but he could not get it from the Jan Aushadhi Kendra.
A source from the hospital said, “Even doctors preferred prescribing branded medicines over the generic. It left patients with no option except to buy medicines from outside the hospital. The list of generic medicines available at Jan Aushadhi Kendra is given to every doctor of the Civil Hospital, but they hardly adhere to it.”
When contacted Senior Medical Officer, Dr Kulwinder Singh, said, “I will look into the matter and help in completing the stock of medicines at the Jan Aushadhi Kendra.”
Purpose of Jan Aushadhi Kendra
- Ensuring availability of quality medicines at affordable rates.
- Price control of scheduled drugs.
- Price regulation of non-scheduled drugs.
- To encourage doctors to prescribe generic medicines.
